BOGOTA – Leaders of the now-demobilized FARC guerrilla group went to the offices of Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on Monday to register their new political party to participate in the 2018 elections.

“We made delivery of all the documentation, including the certification by the Monitoring Mechanism and the United Nations of the laying down of arms and the other documents required in the legislation,” Jairo Estrada told a press conference.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) handed over its weapons during the summer as part of a November 2016 peace accord with the government that ended a five-decade-old conflict.

For their new party, the former insurgents chose a name that preserves the FARC acronym: the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Commons.

Party officials said that they were drawing up lists of candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives.

The party is currently “studying the electoral strategy” for next year’s ballot, Estrada said, declining to exclude the possibility that the FARC will field a presidential candidate.

The erstwhile rebel second-in-command, Ivan Marquez, said the FARC wants to work together with like-minded people of all parties who share the goal of “overcoming the old and unjust social order.”

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